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She is co-leader of the university’s EcoCar 2 team, part of a nationwide competition in which
students overhaul a Chevrolet Malibu to make it more fuel-efficient. The team, housed at OSU’s
Center for Automotive Research, is pulling all-nighters as it prepares for a competition that
begins May 13 in Yuma, Ariz.

The actuator is a device that is supposed to electronically open the trunk.
Because it’s not working, the students have attached twine to the trunk’s emergency release, a
temporary measure as they rush toward the finish.

EcoCar 2 is the latest iteration of the Advanced Vehicle Technology
Competitions, started more than 20 years ago by the U.S. Department of Energy and now co-sponsored
by General Motors. The organizers give 15 college teams the car and the tools to come up with their
own ways to modify it to improve fuel-efficiency.

The project runs in multiyear cycles, each with a different vehicle.

In 2011, Ohio State finished second in EcoCar, in which teams modified a
Chevrolet SUV.

The current project, in the second year of a three-year project cycle, is an
even greater challenge because the Malibu gives the students much less space to work with, said
Kristen De La Rosa, director of the project, which is overseen by Argonne National Lab in the
Chicago area.

“There’s the challenge of packaging all of the components in a smaller space,”
she said.

And that brings us back to the trunk, which the OSU team has loaded with battery
packs. The students converted the car to run on both an electric motor and a gasoline engine. To
further reduce emissions, the gas engine runs on E85, which is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent
gasoline.

“We have by far the most-complicated vehicle” in the competition, said Matt
Yard, 22, the other co-leader and a graduate student in mechanical engineering.

This is not a boast. De La Rosa says the OSU car is unique in its level of
complexity. The team is also notable for having several women in leadership positions, which is
unusual in engineering competitions , she said.

Dozens of the team’s alumni have gone on to jobs in the auto industry. The
current group has about 40 members, including about 20 who are most closely involved in the design
and engineering.

“They are a very well-oiled machine,” said Brian Benoy, an Argonne lab engineer
who is also technical coordinator for the EcoCar 2 competition.

From a technical perspective, he is most impressed with the way the team handled
the electronic controls. “They have an engine with a controller that has been completely rebuilt
from the ground up,” he said.

Each team receives access to $50 million to $60 million worth of software, parts
and tools, De La Rosa said. The majority of that dollar value comes in the form of engineering
software, the same programs that automakers use in their design studios to make simulated vehicles.
“Instead of building fleets of prototypes, you can build it on the computer,” Yard said. The group
will work day and night to get ready for the trip to Arizona. There, the car will be put through a
series of challenges at a GM proving ground. On May 23, the winner will be named at an event in San
Diego.

After that, some of the team members will move on to jobs. Others will come back
for the next phase of the competition, which will involve more challenges with this same vehicle.
dgearino@dispatch.com